Crazy Mama was already locked into an unnervingly rigid production timetable when its original director, Shirley Clarke, was fired just ten days before filming began. Producer Roger Corman had presold the picture to exhibitors, assembled the cast, and fixed the start date, leaving little practical room to reconsider the project. He turned to Jonathan Demme, who had already directed Corman's Caged Heat and was preparing another Corman film, Fighting Mad. Demme initially refused, warning that a feature could not sensibly be made in roughly three weeks, edited in two more weeks, and mixed in a single day. Corman nevertheless told him that he had to take over Crazy Mama if he wanted to make Fighting Mad. Demme accepted only after securing permission for his wife to direct the second unit, an arrangement that illustrates the leverage Corman's production operation could exert over young filmmakers. The resulting film was shot under intense pressure, with rewrites occurring during production and a cast that, according to Demme, disliked the weak script for understandable reasons.
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AI concept artworkArchive Record · 1970s
Jonathan Demme Was Press-Ganged Into Directing Crazy Mama After Shirley Clarke Was Fired
Crazy Mama / 1970s
Crazy Mama was already locked into an unnervingly rigid production timetable when its original director, Shirley Clarke, was fired just ten days before filming began. Producer Roger Corman had presold the picture to exhibitors, assembled the cast, and fixed the start date, leaving little practical room to reconsider the project. He turned to Jonathan Demme, who had already directed Corman's Caged Heat and was preparing another Corman film, Fighting Mad. Demme initially refused, warning that a feature could not sensibly be made in roughly three weeks, edited in two more weeks, and mixed in a single day. Corman nevertheless told him that he had to take over Crazy Mama if he wanted to make Fighting Mad. Demme accepted only after securing permission for his wife to direct the second unit, an arrangement that illustrates the leverage Corman's production operation could exert over young filmmakers. The resulting film was shot under intense pressure, with rewrites occurring during production and a cast that, according to Demme, disliked the weak script for understandable reasons.
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